Capturing the diversity of stress related microbiota from plant endophytic niches

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Eric Kemen
• Subject Area: Organismic Interactions, Chemical Ecology and Microbiomes of Plant Systems
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 515385982

Plants are associated with diverse microbial communities of beneficial, neutral, and pathogenic microorganisms. Beneficial microbes can function in plant growth and development, nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and pathogen defense. The host plants provide habitats and resources for growth and survival of the microorganisms. In this central sub-project of the Research Unit (RU) PlantsCoChallenge, we form a core analytics module to provide a central framework for investigating stress responses at the metaorganism level. We hypothesize that plants react to diverse stresses on a metaorganism level and that protective effects of microbes for the plant are more likely in a plant-microbe-microbe context rather than on the level of single plant-microbe interactions. Within the central project, we will therefore provide for all sub-projects microbiome analyses, plant specific microbial collections and characterization of microbes along with high quality genome sequencing of selected species. For the five core plant species in the RU, seagrass, pondweed, sea rocket, barley, and quinoa, we will profile and analyse endophytic microbes from natural populations or for crop plants from field samples. We will use this data and collected microbes to assemble synthetic microbial communities that will be tested for their response to single and combined abiotic and biotic stresses under defined conditions together with Z1. Identified core and hub microbes will be genome sequenced, annotated and used in combination with metabolomics and transcriptomics. All data combined will enable predictive microbiomic plant models based on multi-layered network analyses (as outlined in Z1) and particularly from the microbial site on Lotka-Volterra models. A long-term goal is to get a deep understanding in the dynamics and responses of metaorganisms to diverse stresses and to better understand links and dynamics between the pool of beneficial plant associated microbes and the pathobiome.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5640: Physiological and Evolutionary Adaptation of Plants to Co-occurring Abiotic and Biotic Challenges
• Co-Investigator: Professor Thorsten Reusch, Ph.D.